Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Almost there...

Installation

Saturday evening:

Plunkett arrived at the Ohio University Art Gallery in Seigfred Hall to Spackle the walls. However, several pieces from the BFA Ceramics show were still in the gallery, the first speed bump in the installation process. Plunkett removed many of the ceramic pieces himself in order to begin the installation process: Spackle, sand and paint.

Sunday:

Around 8:45 am Plunkett retrieved his drawings from his Ridges studio and headed back over to Seigfred. When I arrived there at 7 pm, I was astonished to see how much still had to be done; Plunkett and his help- fellow graduate art students Matt Krueger, Nui Chaveesuk and Jeremy Cody- were still waiting for the walls of the gallery to dry. Plunkett had planned on having the spackle finished and dry on Saturday, but it was left until Sunday. In fact, because of the nature of his show, Plunkett's half of the gallery was almost entirely bare. (He shared the space, divided by a wall, with MFA candidate Liz Zacher, a ceramicist).

Before the drawings could be hung they still needed to be trimmed, a process that would take over three hours.

Unrolling the first drawing for edge-trimming. "I'll cut off probably around 3/4 in.," Plunkett said. "I created a 'safe zone' when I was drawing; I taped off around the edges of each drawing to make sure that there would be room to clean them up."

Cody, Plunkett and Chaveesuk created a mat to cut on.

Trimming: Plunkett was noticeably anxious; he worried that the drawings would not end up as true squares even though they were carefully measured. Eventually, however, the need to finish the project outweighed some of these concerns: "It looks square to me," Plunkett said, scanning the gallery and all that had to be done.

After the edges of the first drawing were trimmed, Plunkett moved on to charcoaling the white edges that had been taped over. “I hope it will be OK when it’s on the wall, but as you can see it’s kind of a different animal,” Plunkett said as he attempted to blend the edges into the rest of the drawing. “I’m trying to get it as seamless as possible… this really is the hardest part.”

As Plunkett blended the edges of the first drawing, the others finished trimming the edges and touching up the walls. A 9 pm the group left for a dinner break, with only two of the six drawings ready to hang.

Second year graduate student Jeremy Cody trimmed the edges of this drawing.

Matt Krueger, whose will present his thesis show later in the month, touches up the wall.

A model of (hopefully) the end result.

Plunkett and his fellow grads working tirelessly to finish the install.

After each drawing was trimmed the hanging process began, a process that lasted until after 6 am. Plunkett went to sleep around 6:30 on Monday morning only to wake up at 8:30 to light the gallery and prepare for his thesis defense later in the evening.